Home!

I suspect in Ethan's mind, the entire trip was really about this day.  And looking back on it, it might have been the best day of the vacation for me too.

Words can't describe how much we love Germany.  When people talk about the fabric of their lives, I do believe several yards of our family's lives involve Preist and Trier.  Our children grew up there, and while most people can feel that comfort of "home" anytime they return to their parents' home, it's quite a bit more difficult for our children to relive it all.  Sometimes I feel as if those memories and those experiences are slipping away from us as we age and fill our memory wells with new places and times, but as soon as we return, it's like we never left.

Because we actually lived there, and because all of our friends have since moved from there, I didn't really have any idea where we should stay as guests.  However, I found the most delightful hotel outside of Trier (and more in the countryside where we used to live) named Berghotel Kockelsberg.  It was absolutely perfect.  Beautiful views over Trier from our room, traditional German food in the restaurant, and a really good price!

This is Trier.  This is where my boys went to school.  This is where my girls took violin lessons for the first time.  This is where we loved to shop and eat.  Oh goodness, we love this city.

We headed into town.  Our first stop was Max-Planck Gymnasium, the school that Ethan attended for three and a half years, and Mark for two.  It was funny reliving so many memories.

Ethan found the scores for the Kangaru test posted.  This notorious exam was given to Ethan when he was in fifth or sixth grade--it's a test given to smart kids, and there are prizes and notoriety to be won.  He and several other kids ended up cheating on it.  Yep, notice his sheepish grin.

Awwww.  The good old "Pause" place, or recess yard.  Something that struck me as soon as my kids started school in Germany was that the places for recess were never more than just an asphalt slab.  No playground equipment.  No sporting equipment.  It's no wonder that the elementary school kids would just pick fights with each other.  What else was there to do? :-)

For Gymnasium, the kids would have twenty minutes to eat their lunch, walk around and talk, and get back to class.  I seem to remember Mark asking me to send along an extra bottle of Propel that he would sell to other kids.  Oreos might have been a desirable item also.

Yes, that's Michael Jackson on the back wall.  It wasn't there when my kids attended, and we're not sure why, of all people, his dancing form is emblazoned there.

We took Rebecca into Der Dom just so that she could say she'd been there.  This was actually one of the first venues Mark ever played his horn.  I'm not sure if our family ever went in any other Germany cathedral.





























Imbiss.  That's German for any kind of fast food.  It can be bakery items, hot food items, drinks.  It's such a lovely way to get a fast snack of any kind.  My boys used to collect "pfand", or deposit discs on coffee cups, so that they could return them for the money and then spend that money on whatever imbiss goodies struck their fancy for that day. Yep, the fabric of our funny, sweet lives...

I had two requests in Germany:  Doener Kebabs, and Spaghetti Eis.  I'm honestly not sure how much we ate of either of those by the time we left, because I wanted it every meal.  I just know we ate A LOT of it.  And why not?  It's like Turkish/Italian/German heaven on earth!

Notice the Apfel Schorle?  Hmmmmm.  Always a winner!

In the six years that we lived in Germany, I'm embarrassed to say that we never visited the Porta Nigra, a 2,000 year old Roman gate that protected the city.  I frequently used it as a landmark when living here, but I never stepped foot in it.  I was determined to visit it once and for all, and it did not disappoint.

It's beautiful, massive and amazing.

The view from the Porta Nigra.  We love Trier's Fuessgaenger Zone.  The only thing that could have made it better was if it had been Christmas!

We discovered our hotel while looking out one side of the Porta Nigra!

We spent several hours shopping.  Oh goodness, it was impossible to stay out of all the toy stores, and I was thankful to have Ethan there to ask about each and every game.  Too, we headed into a new place:  a BOOKSTORE!  That's right folks, there's nothing like leaving a place before you realize that you don't access to those places anymore.  German books?  Do you know how much Ethan wanted German books?  And of course, I walked out with more BABY German books than I care to admit :-)

 Next stop?  Our actual home.

I refuse to get teary-eyed as I write this, but yeah, the tears are flowing.  It felt like we had never left. We knew just how to get home.  And it was touching to see that besides the plants that have grown over the past nine years, everything else looked pretty much the same.

Looking at our house now, it looks so small.  I can hardly believe that six of us lived and loved in that house for five full years.  Seriously, that house is full of so much LOVE!

 And what would a trip home be without a visit to Tadpole Lake, and "the bench"?  I think Ethan might have felt a touch of anxiety (or at least some vomit in the mouth) as he thought back on the hundreds of miles he ran to and from these places!

You can see why we gave the lake the name we did :-)

Yes Ethan, you must actually TOUCH the bench!  It was a three mile, round-trip chore done everyday.  Well, except when Mark hid in the bushes....

Back in 1992, John saw an advertisement for the Air Force scholarship for medical school.  He applied and was accepted, and I remember him telling me, "Why not?  What can happen?  There aren't going to be anymore wars."  We saw it as a means to an end for paying for medical school and nothing more.  However, I know now that the Lord was directing that entire decision.  We had no idea at the time how that decision would affect the rest of our lives, and the lives of our children.

The best time of our lives as a family were in Germany.  I can't tell you how much I wanted to just pull up to our old house, spend the night, and pick up our old lives there again in the morning.  We made lifelong friends during that time, and our children (our boys especially) started an incredible journey of learning; learning about other countries, other cultures, other people.  I look at their lives now, and I know that none of it would have been possible, or even interesting to them, if it hadn't been for our time in Germany.

What a blessing.